Washington, DC—The National Marine Fisheries Service today proposed listing the Taiwanese humpback dolphin (also known as the Taiwanese white dolphin), Sousa chinensis taiwanensis, as endangered, determining that the subs
The World Trade Organization (WTO) issued its latest ruling in April in a decades-long dispute between Mexico and the United States over “Dolphin Safe” labeling of tuna caught in the Eastern Tropical Pacific (ETP). The ruling, as other WTO decisions before it, was a victory for Mexico’s multibillion-dollar tuna fishing industry, and a blow to dolphin conservation. The United States has appealed.
AWI is leading a nationwide effort to encourage US restaurants to stop serving shark fin products, and consumers from purchasing them, because of the cruelty of shark finning and the precarious state of shark populations.
In July, a federal appeals court announced it would permit the US Department of the Interior to move forward with new oil and natural gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico, subject to an analysis of the environmental risks.
Recognizing the will of the people of Illinois and championing America's horses, a three-judge panel from the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit today ruled unanimously to uphold a decision by the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, reaffirming the constitutionality of an Illinois law preventing the slaughter of horses for human consumption.
Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell issued a formal declaration that Iceland is undermining the effectiveness of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and its prohibition on international commercial trade in whale products.
US Department of Commerce Secretary Gary Locke announced yesterday in a formal declaration that Iceland is undermining the effectiveness of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) by hunting whales in defiance of the IWC’s global ban on commercial whaling.
For the first time, several major US egg producers have committed to using a new technology called “in-ovo sexing” that can determine the sex of chicken embryos before they hatch.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) announced a proposal today to confine red wolves to federal lands—including a bombing range—within Dare County, North Carolina. Carrying out such a plan would doom the red wolf to extinction in the wild.
A controversial US-backed research study that aimed to capture whales in northern Norway and test how they would respond to ocean noise has resulted in the death of a minke whale, the Norwegian Defense Research Institute announced today.
Conservation groups reached an agreement today that will require the United States to stop importing seafood that does not meet US standards for protecting marine mammals.
The US National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) announced today that it will ban imports of Mexican shrimp and other seafood caught in the habitat of the critically endangered vaquita porpoise.
On March 11, 2016, just after midnight, a National Airlines 747 landed at Fort Worth’s Alliance Airport with 17 African elephants from Swaziland. These elephants are victims of a controversial international scheme involving three US zoos—the Dallas Zoo, Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo, and Wichita’s Sedgwick County Zoo; the Swaziland government; Big Game Parks (BGP), a nonprofit trust in Swaziland; and the US government.
Federal lawmakers have introduced legislation to prevent the establishment of horse slaughter operations within the US, end the current export of American horses for slaughter abroad, and protect the public from consuming toxic horse meat. The Safeguard American Food Exports (SAFE) Act, H.R. 113, was introduced by Reps. Vern Buchanan (R-FL), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Ed Royce (R-CA), and Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM).
On Friday, the US House of Representatives passed the Sportsmen’s Heritage and Recreational Enhancement (SHARE) Act of 2015 (H.R. 2406)—a sweeping pro-trophy hunting and trapping bill—by a largely partisan vote of 242 to 161. The Obama administration released a statement strongly opposing H.R. 2406 earlier that same week.
On the opening day of the 111th Congress, Representative Madeleine Bordallo (D-GU), chairwoman of the House Natural Resources Committee's Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife and Oceans, reintroduced the Shark Conservation Act of 2009 (H.R. 81).
Yesterday, Congresswoman Nita Lowey (D-NY) introduced legislation to end the use of brutal traps on furbearing animals within federal wildlife refuges. H.R. 3710, the Refuge from Cruel Trapping Act, which was submitted with a total of 35 original co-sponsors, helps to restore the original intent of the National Wildlife Refuge System by placing a ban on the use of cruel body-gripping traps within the refuge system.
Today, Congresswoman Nita Lowey (D-NY) introduced legislation to end the use of brutal traps on furbearing animals within federal wildlife refuges. The Refuge from Cruel Trapping Act, H.R. 2657, is intended to help to restore the original intent of the National Wildlife Refuge System by placing a ban on the use of cruel body-gripping traps on these public lands.
Once again, Congress has voiced its opposition to horse slaughter. The US House of Representatives today approved an amendment to the 2008 Agriculture Appropriations bill that will temporarily bring horse slaughter to a halt by stripping funds from the federally required inspection of slaughter-bound horses. Without the inspections, the slaughter cannot proceed.
The US House Subcommittee on Health of the Committee on Energy and Commerce held a hearing today on “Improving Safety and Transparency in America’s Food and Drugs.”
Yesterday, President Obama announced that the United States will not impose targeted trade sanctions to address Iceland’s commercial whaling, although the President has revised and repackaged a series of diplomatic measures that US officials will be obligated to implement.
